What do FLOTUS, NASA, Justin Bieber and WVU all have in common? Well, they’re all Shorty Award winners.

West Virginia University has been named the best university on social media after garnering a Shorty Award for social media engagement in the #BNCollege category.

The award was presented to the Barnes & Noble College campus that most effectively used social media to drive campus engagement with students, faculty and the entire campus community while, most importantly, celebrating the school’s authentic spirit and attitude.

“We are thrilled to have our social media efforts recognized with a Shorty Award. Social media is one of the best ways we’ve found to reach our audience, and we aren’t afraid to try new things. From Twitter to Facebook, Pinterest to Instagram, I appreciate that our University Relations team adapts to each new platform we adopt in our social media mix,” said Tricia Petty, associate vice president for Marketing and Operations. “We’ve done a very good job, and the award reinforces that, in creating unique content that is relevant to our followers.”

For five years, the Shorty Awards have honored the best people and organizations on social media presented by Barnes & Noble College. The University was presented the award today (April 8) at its annual event in New York City.

WVU took the top prize over finalists Liberty University, the University of Mississippi, Indiana University, Boston University College of Communications, the University of Houston and the University of South Florida.

Fans of schools from across the country used the #BNCollege hashtag and their university’s Twitter handle to vote.

“When I heard about the Shorty Awards, I knew all the things that WVU had been doing in social media and online. I thought we’d have a good shot, because of all the cutting edge things we do on campus with social media,” said David Lang, WVU Bookstore manager.

If you don’t already, make sure to follow WVU on Twitter and like us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/WVUMountaineers to join our conversation. Check out our new account on Instagram, as well.

To see other WVU organizations using social media that might interest you, go to http://connect.wvu.edu/.

Other award winners included First Lady Michelle Obama, celebrity Justin Bieber, NASA for Best in Government and CNN for Best Use of Social Media for News for its 2012 Presidential election coverage.

-WVU-

td/04/08/13

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